Some embodiments described herein relate generally to using a common control protocol to manage wireless and wired devices, and, in particular, to methods and apparatus for using a common control protocol such as the Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) protocol to manage wireless Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and wired (IEEE 802.3) devices in an enterprise network architecture.
Known enterprise networks use separate control protocols for managing and/or controlling wireless devices on the one hand and wired network devices on the other hand. The use of separate protocols typically involves increased computational resources to translate control and data packets between one protocol and the other protocol. This can lead lower efficiency of the enterprise network.
Accordingly, a need exists for the use of a single control protocol for managing network sessions, network nodes and data tunneling functions in both wireless and wired network devices in an enterprise network.